Sunday, August 30, 2015

Andrei Tarkovsky's 'Солярис' / 'Solaris' (1972): Take II

Andrei Tarkovsky's Солярис / Solaris (1972) uses windows, mirrors, water, color and intermittently, black & white film to enhance its existential themes, to great effect. 
"This is my wife." So says Kris Kelvin (played by Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis) to his colleagues, formally introducing them to Ocean-created Hari / Khari (played by Russian actor Natalya Bondarchuk).
There is a cool driving scene featuring a Japanese cityscape that manifests complexity and pattern recognition in human social relationships. 
The Library on the Solaris space station is a key meeting point; it's also where a gorgeous scene of zero gravity takes place. Solaris explicitly cites Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Miguel de Cervantes, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy, among other cultural touchstones. 
Bruegel, Jagers in de Sneeuw (1565), a copy of which Hari examines with great intensity, looking for clues about human nature. 

1 comment:

Charles Gramlich said...

Lana and I are planning on seeing this one. Did you hear that Wes Craven has died? Don't know if you watch that kind of movie much.